The 383-Pound Gorilla in the Room

First of all, the death of any child, for any reason, is horrible. And by "horrible" you know (though I hope you'll never have to truly know) what I mean.

But the way the AP covered the death of a 383-pound 13-year-old from St. Louis raised my slightly bushy eyebrows.

The boy died during a conditioning lap as part of football practice, likely during a rather hot day. Get this:

An autopsy was performed but cause of death won't be available for several weeks pending tissue and toxicological test results, said Dr. Mary Case, St. Louis County medical examiner, adding that the boy's weight and heart are "certainly a consideration."

Certainly a consideration? The kid weighed 383 pounds! Granted, he was six-foot-two, but none of my tall adult friends are threatening the fifth-of-a-ton barrier.

It's suggested that the boy might have had the same heart defect as his father, who died at age 45 and whose "death certificate states what roughly translates to high blood pressure and clogged arteries." At issue is whether kids who want to play sports should get an EKG to locate these kinds of heart defects, versus the cost to test every athlete.

"But do you do an EKG on 5 million kids to find 15 cases?" asks Dr. Robert Eckel, past president of the American Heart Association and professor of medicine at University of Colorado Denver Medical School. "It's a matter of cost and benefit."

Yes, but focusing on the 15 kids who weigh almost 400 pounds would be a good start. And perhaps someone should have considered helping the boy back when he was, oh, 350 or 300 pounds. The article quotes one "Dr. Keith Mankowitz, a professor of medicine at Washington University who specializes in prevention of sudden death in athletes, said 13-year-old boys don't die of morbid obesity."

Maybe not, Professor Doctor, but can they die of what roughly translates to high blood pressure and clogged arteries"? Read more...